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CrossFit Journal Issue Sixty-One September 2007

ISSUE SIXTY-ONE

September 2007

CrossFit Training for LawEnforcement

Jacksonville Five Years LaterTJ Cooper

and Phil Canto

A Large-Group WorkoutSolutionMichael Rutherford

Basically BarbellsThe CrossFit Basic Barbell Cer-tication SeminarCCT Joey

Close Quarter Form(Video Article)Tom Arcuri

Human Weapon System(Video Article)Robert Smith, M.D.

Assistance Sequence forthe SnatchMike Burgener,

with Tony Budding

Sokoudjous Inside TripBecca Borawski

Ring Row Variations

Tyler Hass

Strong Enough?Mark Rippetoe

Strength on the MatGant Grimes

After several years of providing CrossFit training to law enforcement personnel at

varied stages in their careers, I have picked up a few things that might be beneficial

to those among you preparing to do the same. I would like to share with you theprocess of CrossFit implementation, sustainability, and improvement that we use

for training recruits at the Jacksonville Sheriff s Office. Much of what I have to say

may be what you are already doing. If that is the case, then see this as confirmation

of your approach. For those of you hoping to implement similar programs at your

agencies, I hope this description of our program and principles will be a useful

example.

HistoryIn 2001, Greg Glassman came to Florida to give a CrossFit seminar for the Florida

Police Corps at the request of Training Specialist Derek Ray. At the time, as a

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TJ Cooper and Phil Canto

continued page ... 2

CrossFit Training for Law Enforcement

Jacksonville Five Years Later

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sergeant in the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, I had been running

a parallel program in the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office and Florida

Community Colleges Basic Law Enforcement (BLE) Program.

The CrossFit program I was implementing had been quietly

supported, tweaked, and tested via correspondence and advice

from Coach Glassman; recruits in both programs were showing

remarkable results. (See Police Training in CrossFit Journal

issue #3 [March 2003].) In fact, the program was indeed forging

elite fitness among our recruits, just as its founder promised.

Now, in 2007, the program continues. This article describes our

current implementation and standards for recruits from day one

to graduation.

As reported in the March 2003 issue of the CFJ and recorded in

our internal documents, CrossFit led to a reduction in injuries

among recruits. The Florida Police Corps Program was seeking

training protocols that produced fitness and performance results

above average compared to what was being used in traditional

training programs. From the academy and agency standpoint, wehad three additional requirements:

Reduction of injuries

Adaptability to all tenure periods

Recruits successful completion of the program physical

fitness exit exam.

The results of the program in 2003 were better than expected.

Injuries in my programs were down 80 percent in the first year.

The few injuries that did occur happened under fill-in (i.e., non-

CrossFit) instructors when I was not present. In these instances,

the substitute instructor freelanced and used unstructured

protocols inconsistent with CrossFits standards. Since that firstyear, we have had no physical training injuries related to our

model of conditioning. None.

We have trained BLE classes since 2001, encompassing

approximately 970 recruits for the college and an additional 375

hired police recruits for the Jacksonville Sheriff s Office. During

training at our agency, I observed an increase in skills and abilities

and an acceptance of conditioning by our agency personnel

at all levels. More importantly, it forced us to realize that our

traditional standards were not as demanding as they could have

been. The fitness exam being used at the time required very little

in the way of functional fitness. The exam was essentially one

minute of push-ups and sit-ups, a one-and-a-half-mile run for time,and, finally, the Job Task Obstacle Course. The existing program

was in need of adjusting if the officers we wanted to produce

were to be fitter and more capable than the average citizen weswore to protect.

Since the implementation of CrossFit, academy graduates who

have been recruited by outside agencies have been lauded

specifically for their physical and mental combat readiness and

can-do attitudes. The top performers in our physical training

programs have moved on to tactical assignments where they

publicly credit their survival in deadly force engagements and

extended stressful incidents to their CrossFit mentality.

Jacksonvilles three-phase program

During Florida Community Colleges Basic Law Enforcement (BLE)

Program, and the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office Recruit Academy, ou

CrossFit implementation was introduced to recruits in a three

phase process. During the three phases, we lecture on fitness

teach new exercises, and mete out a variety of workouts. With

this focused introduction of the basic CrossFit principles, our

goal is not only to prepare recruits for the immediate demands o

the job but also to give them the tools to continue their training

and progress after graduation and remain involved in an ongoing

pursuit of better performance and lifelong health.

In Phase 1, recruits are introduced to our training program with

a 4-hour foundations lecture. We explain the concepts of fitness

discuss nutrition, and explain how the program will prepare them

for patrol and specialized unit training. Recruits are given forms

that they will use to record their food, sleep, and activity for three

days. We use this to make it clear that the program is broadly

based and requires solid foundations across the board, including

a proper diet. It is not an isolated once-a-day PT session. We

expect them to integrate it into their lives.

...continued

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In this phase, we introduce recruits to several of our general

fitness standards, beginning with a proper warm-up, body

mechanics, and movement standards. It is here that we begin

their metabolic conditioning and strength training. We also

give the first standards exam to set a benchmark we can use to

gauge progress throughout the training cycle. These standardsrun alongside the still-required standard entry/exit fitness

exam, which is still required of law enforcement candidates for

acceptance into the training academy (at both the college and the

sheriff s office). The candidates also must pass the same exam

to complete program, as mandated by the Florida Department

of Law Enforcement (the state governing agency and certifier of

police and corrections officers). In our program, the CrossFit

benchmarks are required exit exams as well, and these are the

instruments we care most about, since they better assess the

adaptations that officers actually need for work assignment. We

recognize, however, that recruits have widely varied degrees of

fitness upon entry into the program, and the benchmarks are

designed to allow everyone to participate fully.

During the training phases, the recruits are exposed to a regimen

of CrossFit workouts that we take from the current list of

benchmark workouts known as the girls. We essentially break

these down and focus on their components, building smaller

exercise cycles that end in the completion of the corresponding

full benchmark test. As an example of how we incorporate the

benchmark into the phase, we use Angie (100 pull-ups, push-

ups, sit-ups, and squats, for time) as the first benchmark. This

test requires an understanding of mechanics for proper pull-

ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. During this phase, we discuss

proper structure for each of the benchmark components. In

addition, we introduce skills needed for job performance. After

instruction and initial exposure, the exercises are repeated in

various formats that change up the duration, frequency, and load,

or, in some cases, that drill familiarization and skill practice. At

the end of this phase, the benchmark is retested. The benchmark

for the next phase of training is also introduced, as is the Tabata

protocol. Each process is layered over the previous phase, whichallows for a constantly varied but progressive theme in the

workouts. These phases are structured to provide better detail

in the program of instruction and allow for increased intensity

and understanding of CrossFit methodology.

...continued


We emphasize the very real importance of fitness

for saving ones own life and protecting others.

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...continued


Phase 2 (4 weeks)Cycle: 2 or 3 days per week, alternating

Gymnastics standards: L-sits, burpees

Body mechanics: jump rope, box jump, sumo deadlift high pull

Weight mechanics: press, push press, overhead squatMetabolic conditioning: 2-mile run, -mile run

Benchmark 3: Tabata squats

Benchmark 4: Fran (For time: 21, 15, 9 reps of thrusters and

pull-ups)

Recruit Complexes:

Complex 1: pop-up, burpee, rollback, bear crawl or handstand

Complex 2: sit-up, leg lift, hollow rock

Complex 3: overhead squat, sumo deadlift high pull, push-up, med

ball high toss, med ball broad jump

Phase 2 additional equipment

Olympic bars

45-lb Olympic-size plates

25-lb rubber bumper plates


Exercises and stretches

Samson stretch

SquatsPop-ups

Overhead close-in stretch

Overhead squat stretch (PVC)

AbMat sit-up

Rollbacks

Push-ups

Pull-ups

Deadlifts

Gymnastics standards: handstand, hollow rock

Body mechanics standards: push-up, pull-up, air squat

Weight mechanics standards: deadlift, front squat, thruster

Metabolic conditioning: 1-mile run, -mile run

Phase 1 equipment

In general, the first round of equipment collection should include

obtaining the basic equipment needed to complete Phase 1style

WODs. The goal is to have the needed equipment available for

each participant, but working at 1: 3 ratio with the average class

size is more than acceptable. This equipment will get you started

with a large variety of movements and workouts. Many of the

listed items can be readily found, even at the most archaic of

facilities (1:1 indicates items we try to supply individually for each

participant).

Pull-up bars (1:1)6-foot lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe (1:1)

Jump ropes (1:1)

30- or 35-pound dumbbells (1:1)

Parallettes

Plyo boxes

Dynamax medicine balls

AbMats


Warm-up: traditional CrossFit warm-up

In Phase 3, we begin to implement the CrossFit WOD, scaled as

needed. We also begin to have squad events, and begin using the

white board for recordkeeping and competition.
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...continued


Sustainability

One component of our programs success has been our

willingness to open the doors for others to watch and question.

Successful sustainability allows management to see your work

and the accompanying documentation. Were always available to

answer questions and respond to suggestions when presented.

We use several of the better students to show proper form

and attitude. The administrative staff is also invited to look at

the structure of the program. We offer weekly early-morning,

lunchtime, and after-work programs for continued and enhanced

learning. Lastly, we use the websites (ours and CrossFit.com) and

the posted white board to help provide information and foster

esprit de corps.

The program has also utilized the SWAT team members for

feedback and program enhancements where appropriate. This has

allowed us to develop more intensive programming suggestions

for the more physically capable and those performing at higher

levels of physical and mental acuity.

Looking forward: Betterments

As we continue to grow, we are looking for ways to have our own

space. The existing gym has slowly allowed us dedicated space,

and our equipment requirements are now built into the budget.

In order to accomplish this, we tracked our equipment use, class

sizes, and student performances. These reports include meal plans,

student feedback and testimonials, and instructor profiles, as well

as information on the potential for further lectures, training, and

certifications. This emphasizes our perspective that teaching is

about more than physical performance alone. Forcing students to

think is critical. The instructors need to be able to do this as well.

Keys to implementation

When you begin your process of introducing the CrossFit

program, be sure to prepare a summary of your ideas and how

they relate to functionality. Part of our initial problem was egos

and the us vs. them mindset. Your summary should include a

list of other agencies that use the program and contacts within

each of thema functional reference list, if you will. The contacts

should include officers at every level in their respective agencies.

Of course, your summary should describe the highlights of

your program and explain the fresh perspectives behind your

approaches. (Information from the CrossFit Foundations and

What Is Fitness? documents will be helpful.) This summary

should also discuss how you will implement the program, the

timeframe, and how you will support future training. Finally, the

bigger picture in your summary should show how simple an

approach to super wellness this is and how the foundations are

based on well-grounded, thoughtful, field-tested principles.

An important part of making CrossFit work at your agency is

having the right people, with the right attitude and approach in

implementing the program. Here are some key concepts that we

make sure are understood by everyone involved in implementing

the program.

Check your attitude

Often during training, we tend to single out subjects based

on our perceptions of their attitudes. Breaking a student

is a term often used to make a point about the ability of

an individual who has either too much or not enough ego

However, a coach is responsible for the needs of a team, and i

you single someone out, it must be purposeful, not spiteful or

personal. The flip side of assessing ability based on attitude is

assessing mental fortitude and character through the physica

training itself. Your trainees need to be challenged, but they

must also be enabled by the trainers to feel they are capable

of accomplishing the goals. The phase system seems to aid in

this process and prepare trainees to complete the WODs, i

not outright excel in them. If you throw a full WOD at them

too early in the process, a percentage will be lost to you. The

phase system builds both skills and confidenceand does so

incrementally. We have seen raw recruits enter with little or

no physical prowess, commit themselves to the program, andlater exit as top-tier performers.

Treat the student like an athlete: Pain is part of the

game

Performance is directly linked to training. Athletes preparing

for game day must be prepared to face all the challenges of

their game. Serious athletes know and accept that pain is an

unavoidable part of the game, and therefore it is also part

of the training. Preparation of a law enforcement officer

for winning game day performances should include this

concept. I dont mean unreasonable or debilitating damage

of course, but realistic physical stress the accompanyingdiscomfort. In the past, students have been trained as if they

had no requirements with regard to actual performance, and

because of this, sometimes the guy on the bench has had to

step in and save the day. The student must understand the

differences between discomfort and injury, and be prepared

to push through the pain to win. Experiencing and

tolerating pain in the gym can make a real difference in how

they experience and cope with pain and stress on the street

We emphasize the very real importance of fitness for saving

ones own life and protecting others.

We have seen raw recruits enter with little or

no physical prowess, commit themselves to theprogram, and later exit as top-tier performers.
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Understand the training environment: Keep it

functional

Ensure that students understand the mechanics of their

environment. Make the training environment and the toolsapplicable to the real world that the students will be working

in. This means you will need tools for training a variety of

functional movements at high intensity (Not a room full of

the latest shiny equipment and individual isolation machines

for every individual muscle fiber known to man). Fortunately,

even if all you have are a floor, a wall, pull-up bars, or free

weights, you have all you really need to get started (see the

Garage Gym issue [#2] of the CrossFit Journal). Yes there

is plenty more you can use to enhance performance, but you

can grow with the simplicity of what you have. Once again

the phase system aids in this process.

Be consistent

When preparing your students, it is important to have them

work at an intensity that will allow them to reap the benefits

of CrossFit. The training norm of 70-percent effort may be

acceptable for the general population seeking mediocre

fitness of the conventional variety, but if your standard of

fitness is essentially your peoples ability to live and respond

in times of crisis, this level of output is not acceptable. You

must then rethink your efforts and recalibrate your standards

accordingly. The workouts you program should involve all

three of the bodys metabolic pathways. Ninety percent

should primarily involve the first two (phosphagen and

glycolytic) metabolic pathways. Remember, the timeframe for

these workouts often varies considerably from conventional

standards (the old 30 minutes of cardio). Most workouts

will consist of one to six exercises and take approximately

ten to thirty minutes for an individual to complete.

It has only just begun

The success we have so far achieved in our local training

arena is essentially just the beginning of what we set out to

accomplish. The core mission has always been and will continue

to be the production of high-caliber functionally fit police

officers, irrespective of innate athletic talent, fitness background,or other uncontrollable factors. The CrossFit model has given

us the foundation and freedom to accomplish great things with

our public-service employees. One must understand these

foundations, be prepared to defend them, and then have the

willingness and flexibility to flow with the needs of a changing

and dynamic profession. Persistence and strong focus on the

goalas well as a set of instructors with a strong understanding

of CrossFit principles, a virtually egoless mentality, and the ability

to be flexible enough to change as neededwill assist with each

step of this process.

CrossFits creed has always been to forge elite fitness. As you

prepare to design and implement the program at your training

center, hold true to this concept. The notion of truly functiona

fitness is what makes CrossFit the best option for public safety

employees. Nothing else is like it. We are all forging the future ofitness at our institutions.

...continued


The training norm of 70-percent effort may be

acceptable for the general population seeking

mediocre fitness of the conventional variety, but if

your standard of fitness is essentially your peoples

ability to live and respond in times of crisis, thislevel of output is not acceptable.

TJ Cooper is a certified

CrossFit trainer, an LEO/

mil instructor in the tactical

arena, particularly on high-

liability topics, a 20-year lawenforcement officer (17 on

the SWAT unit), and the

Basic Law Enforcement Lead

Fitness Instructor at the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office. He

is the owner of CrossFit East and Control Concepts

International; his work at these companies allows him to

be humbled regularly by some of the best athletes and

shooters in the world.

Phil Canto is a state-certified law enforcement

instructor in several high-liability areas. He holds a B.A.

from the University of South Florida and a Master of

Public Administration from the University of North

Florida and is a level-3 CrossFit trainer. Phils research

focus lies in the functional applications of fitness and

its dynamic relevance in law enforcement, athletics, and

lifelong health.

Both authors exclusively employ CrossFit for individual

and group fitness development.
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Michael Rutherford

The group workouts I offer have now taken on a life of their own.

Im frequently pulling in upward of 30 athletes in my 6:00am group.

The more I say Sorry, no more room, the greater the requests

become. At the least, this has been an interesting sociology

experience.

Before you spit up in your mouth or y the bird at the page,

thinking Im honking my own coaching horn, let me explain. I tell

you this because as this CrossFit culture grows, other trainers and

afliates will be faced with some dilemmas. Your groups will verge

on the unmanageable. Trust me, they are coming.

As I have matured in this tness coaching profession, Ive learned

that the simplest of movement combinations yield the greatest

results. The Rutherford Postulate states, As the group increases

in size, the complexity of the workout diminishes. Unless you have

associate trainers all around you, or a group of very experienced,well trained, and skilled athletes, it is difcult to coach complicated

movements and unwise (and often impractical) to orchestrate a

workout that involves ve, six, or seven different exercises and/or

pieces of equipment. For me, the dumbbell continues to be the

tool of choice for these kinds of groups.

This month I provide a super-simple yet potent example of a

dumbbell couplet that works great with large groups and in limited

space. It also works with a wide variety of tness levels and will

be accessible to much of the masses. You can use it effectively, for

example, with the neophyte as well as the longtime-CrossFitting

Army Ranger. (I say this because this exact scenario presented

itself at my place one morning.)

In the lexicon of CrossFit templates, this workout is a combination

of a weightlifting exercise and a simple gymnastics movement: the

dumbbell get-up and the push-up. Ouch, you say?

The get-up movement has been presented multiple times in this

Journal, with a variety of tools (dumbbell, barbell, kettlebell, sma

child, etc.). Ill keep it brief as not to insult your intelligence

Remember, simple is important with a large group. You cant make

it too difcult to follow or they will be lost, frustrated, and, most

likely, only short-term participants.

Here is how I coach it in 60 seconds:

1. Get on your back with the dumbbell extended straight

up in one arm.2. At all times keep your eye on the dumbbell, with the arm

extended vertically, meaning toward the ceiling, at all times

(When you can, coach the heck out of this aspect. All the

other elements seem to fall into place when they keep an

eye on the dumbbell and the arm stiff as a clothesline.)

3. Roll to the opposite side using that arm for assistance.

4. Pull the legs and feet underneath you as you move into a

position to squat the weight up and stand on your feet.

5. Reverse the movement to return to the starting position

lying on your oor with the dumbbell pressed above

you.

A Large-Group Workout Solution

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...continued

A Large-Group Workout Solution

Now, I am demonstrating this movement as I coach it. If I have

an able participant I will pull them to the front of the coach to

demonstrate for me.

I will typically assign a rep range of about ve per arm, as this

generally hits the center of the bell curve for participants in the

class. I set the upper load limit at about 25 percent of body weight

for most people. Since biomechanics are paramount, one of the

technique points I emphasize and try to enforce early on is that

the arm is staying straight and vertical. Some athletes will struggle

with this no matter what the weight. And, for some, immobility

from lack of use or injury history just wont permit a straight arm

in certain planes.

At the conclusion of the get-ups, the athletes perform 10 push-

ups. All the usual requirements of good technique for push-upsand their variants (e.g., knee push-ups) apply.

When Im dealing the masses, I will typically write this as a time-

oriented workout, which allows the newbies to get comfortable

with the workout without the pressure of hitting a number against

the studs. It also automatically scales the volume of work to the

individuals abilities and keeps everyone to the same time domain

for the workoutso you dont have some people struggling to

nish a task-oriented workout long after others are done and

sitting around. Id do something on the order of how many

rounds of 10 get-ups and 10 push-ups can you complete in 20

minutes?

If you have rebreathers in the group, you can modify their push-

ups by elevating the feet or advancing them to handstand push-

ups, as well as increasing the dumbbell weight for the get-ups.

On occasion, you will have an athlete with physical limitations that

will make full get-ups impossible or painful. In these instances,

you can have them perform the half get-up. Have them stop as

they elevate the shoulder and sit up and then return to the supine

position. These folks may well need modied push-ups too. This

achieved by pivoting on the knees rather than the toes. A straightspine position (plank) is still the rule.

If you are running short on dumbbells, you can partner up the

participants for a team challenge, where one does push-ups while

the other does get-ups. The pair completing the greatest numbe

of rounds in 20 minutes is declared the champions of the day.

However you want to slice it up or modify this workout, your

participants will enjoy the session while getting a good dose of

functional exercise.

Michael Rutherford (a.k.a. Coach Rut, a.k.a the

Dumbbell Coach) is the owner of CrossFit Kansas City/

Boot Camp Fitness. He has over a quarter-century of tness

coaching experience with athletes of all ages. He has also

worked in hospital wellness environments and rehabilitation

clinics. Rut holds academic degrees in biology, physical

education, and exercise physiology and sports biomechanics.

He is a USAW-certied Club Coach and is a CrossFit level-

3 trainer. You can learn more dumbbell exercises from his

three-volume DVD set Dumbbell Moves.
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A great American and patriot once said, There are known

knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are

known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know

we dont know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are

things we dont know we dont know.

As I entered CrossFit San Diego to attend a CrossFit Basic Barbell

Certication seminar, I knew what I knew, I knew some things Ididnt know, but I really had no idea what I didnt know I didnt

know. So much so, it was startling.

The Basic Barbell Certication is a rather new arrow in the

ever-growing quiver of CrossFit knowledge imparted in seminar

format. Enter Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore from stage right.

I could go on and on about Coach Rip and his ability to teach

the lifts and work a crowd, but you probably know that. I could

go on and on about how Professor Kilgore is a walking almanac

of strength training facts and gures, but unless you just walked

out of a forest, you probably already know that as well. Both

have a list credentials I cannot begin to cover (perhaps the mostimmediately relevant, though, being their authorship of the books

Starting Strength and Practical Programming for Strength Training).

This certication is another offering by CrossFit to give you what

you need to get better in those things best in life.

And this is about life. The most important thing in life, as Rip is

always saying, is physical strength. The rest is gravy. In answer to

the question What is best in life? Conan the Barbarian said it

best, To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and

to hear the lamentation of the women! Conan was clearly a

genius of a man, who thought through second- and third-order

effects. To do what he recommends takes strength. Easy enough

for Conan, but not so much for many people in this world. Do

you think Stephen Hawking would rather study black holes or

walk to work? That may sound cruel to some and funny to others

however, it is neither. It is reality. Black holes and their effect on

light particles mean jack squat to a weak, old woman who is stuck

on the toilet without a handrail.

So, I must strive to impart what you will learn, unlearn, relearnlearn the hard way, learn to accept, and learn to teach. The last in

the list is key.

Learn

We will begin with the learning. The basis of the entire seminar

revolves around ve key lifts: squat, deadlift, bench press, press

and power clean. This is about barbells, not kettlebells, clubbells

dumbbells, or Hells Bells (though I do have AC/DC playing in the

background at the moment). Barbells are the very basic and bes

device for developing pure strength. With their almost limitless

ability to scale up or down in weight, you can use them with thetime-proven best exercises to ensure you can move you and your

stuff for the rest of your life. To teach this stuff, Coach Rippetoe

will be doing a lot of talking and it is well worth listening to closely

just dont expect to be sitting down much or talking pure theory

Eighty percent of the learning at this certication takes place on

your feet with a barbell in hand, or watching and cueing another

person with a barbell. You will be placed into groups of 4 to 5

people of similar strength levels for a particular lift at a platform

Expect to work technique with light weight and then build up to

a few heavy sets for each exercise, and to coach others to do the

same.

CCT Joey

Basically BarbellsThe CrossFit Basic Barbell Certification Seminar

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0

...continued

Basically Barbells

The rest of this article is about the process of learning as you begin

to be able to recognize the fundamentals of proper movement in

yourself and others. Half of this battle is having the will to let go

of your preconceived notions of what right is supposed to look

like.

Unlearn and relearn

First out of the hopper is unlearning. Unlearning seems

counterintuitive. Why not just learn new information over the

other stuff? I dont know, but for that matter, why cant I just plug

in to the matrix and have some guy dressed as a street person

sitting behind a computer download all this stuff directly into

my skull? (Actually, Tony Budding and Brian Mulvaney from HQ

are already working on that...) For now though, it does not work

that way. You are going to feel all-over confusion as your mental

picture, the verbal cues, and the actual physical movements you

perform and witness fail to resemble one another. The way youapply your particular physical structure to move the weight will

be tweaked to the point that you will say to yourself, Are they

serious? They will be serious, and they will be right, or they will

see what they needed to see to make another correction in your

technique.

Stay with me now. As an example, here is how things might go on

the rst heavy set of squats.

Rep 1: You will have an epiphany (a ve-dollar word for the

lightbulb came on) and it will probably happen under the load of a

barbell. You will realize that you have already heard or read about

this at the precise moment you lock out the weight far easierthan you are used to. This is relearning slipping into the mix. It

is sneaky that way, and it might make you think you are suffering

from exercise-induced Alzheimers.

Rep 2: Get ready to screw it up again, as you have forgotten, in

your excitement, how to unlearn what you taught yourself lifting

in front of a mirror at the local YMCA.

Rep 3: Wait! He said Heels! That means to keep the combined

center of gravity of your body and the barbell over the mid-foot,

thus keeping the heels of your feet on the oor. This or another

properly placed cue will help you lift properly. Amazingyou just

got done with rep #3 and you are 2 for 1.

Do you think you will curb your enthusiasm and get reps #4 and

#5 right? Unlearning and relearning are at each others throats.

So it goes, for several sets of the ve exercises and several aws

in your technique. Somewhere along the way, you give up on

lifting heavy and refocus on just lifting properly with the weight

you have. That way, maybe the next time you show up you can

slightly increase the weight and do it right again. Ah, yes, its called

progress.

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.mov

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.wmv

Online Video CrossFit Basic Barbell Certification Seminar pt.1

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.mov

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.wmv

Online VideoCrossFit Basic Barbell Certification Seminar pt.2
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.movhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.movhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction2.movhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipPressInstruction1.mov

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Learn the hard way

This, of course, brings us around to learning the hard way. This is

something I excel at. Learning the hard way is a syndrome that

typically affects the male of the species when other males are

around. It gets worse if you throw in some (but disproportionatelyfew) attractive females. The worst of the worst is a guy like me who

needs to prove something to himself. (Normally, a chiropractor

gets involved at this point.) The hard way approach is a completely

voluntary step in the process, not part of the formal instruction

plan, and it is preached against at the Basic Barbell Certication.

However, if you must learn the hard way, it might well be allowed

in order to teach the other attendees what silliness looks like

and how to deal with it. (Not that I would know from personal

experience or anything.) This reminds me of another point. At

the end of each exercise, each attendee will demonstrate, for the

group to critique, how to do the lift for a heavy set. Grow some

thick skin for this, as 25 people will nitpick your form to the nth

degree as they and you learn to recognize, prioritize, and correctaws in your mechanics.

Learn to accept

Learning to accept is your next step in personal growth through

the medium of barbells at the Rippetoe and Kilgore School for the

Strength Challenged. Your body has its own specic angles created

by your joints and by the lengths of the limbs that meet to create

the joints, coupled with how and where your muscles attach to

them lever armsefciency of movementthroughout the

ver-ti-cal planezz.zzz.zzzz

Wake up!!

Look, this is easy. The point is: Everyone is different. I am not

talking about that cultural diversity stuff. I am talking about how

your physical proportions relate to how you move the barbell.

Example: I have long femurs in relation to my lower legs. That

means my back will be near horizontal at the beginning of a

deadlift in order to get the lifting mechanics rightextended back,

at feel, shoulder blades over the bar. No amount of squirming

or contorting is going to change that if I want to pick up the

Conan-worthy weights. These same proportions mean that

I can lift signicantly more weight in a low-bar squat than in a

high-bar squat because I am not straining my lower back to try,unnecessarily, to stay up-right. However, without accepting this

way of thinking about things, I would still be trying sit upright at

the start of my deadlifts and doing good mornings at the end of

my heavy high-bar squats. And I would still be lifting way below

my potential. I had to learn to accept that I am not built like the

compact Brett Marshall. Accepting your proportions puts you on

the fast track to lifting more, as you quickly come to understand

your biomechanical strengths and weaknesses. This is a primary

focus of the seminar and is continually pointed out in a variety of

contexts. One size does not t alland one set of predeterminedangles does not t all bodies.

Learn to teach

In the hope that I still have at least half of the readers attention

after describing how long my femurs are, I transition to the other

primary point of the seminar: Learn how to teach. Anyone can

bark out pre-fab cues all day, every day, and even actually makesome headway with some trainees. However, the more effectively

and efciently a trainer or coach can impart the information he

understands to the person lifting the bar, the more effective the

process is.

The seminar ensures that you understand how to teach by making

you demonstrate these techniques on the other attendees. You

will learn how and when to cue a trainee. You will learn how to

look at a trainees proportions and ensure they are putting those

proportions in the correct alignment in order to move effectively

under load. You will learn how to deal with common problems

(One of the memorable things I learned from Rip is that a lack of

the proper use of yelling has contributed to much of the sillinessfound in the modern gym). Sensitivity be damned.

The Basic Barbell Certication is as much about how to coach

the lifts as it is about how to do them. Rippetoe and Kilgore

along with a host of senior CrossFit coaches and trainers, wil

be in your mug making sure you get it right in your lifting and

in your coaching. After all, isnt this why you would come to a

certication? If you could read a book and get it as quickly and

accurately (and while having as much fun), then exercise scientists

would all make good coaches, and we could learn this stuff just

as well from the comfort of our La-Z-Boys with a good reading

lamp. Alas, it aint so. Good, solid hands-on learning makes fo

good, solid hands-on coaching. The kind of coaching that will both

help the older woman grow strong enough to be able to get off

the toilet without a handrail and thus remain independent, and

also enable our warriors to crush their enemies, see them driven

before them, and to hear the lamentation of the women! After al

isnt this what is best in life?

...continued

Basically Barbells

CCTJoey is a member of the

United States Air Force and a

Level-2 CrossFit Trainer.

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Tom Arcuri

Close Quarter Form(Video Article)

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.mov

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.wmv

Online Video ArticleVideo Article (13:17)

Tom Arcuri of Blauer Tactical Systems presents the Close

Quarter Form (CQF), a sequence of moves that drills a set of

biomechanically efcient and effective close-quarter combat

tactics. It is part of their S.P.E.A.R. system, which teaches that

the most efcient, effective moves you can use in a ghtand

in trainingare ones that leverage the bodys natural, instinctual,

unavoidable behaviors (such as the inch reex, for example) and

convert them into efcient protective and combative tactics.

The problem with a lot of martial arts and/or self-defense training

is that it doesnt mimic the conditions of a real ght. The CQFis specically designed to assist in visualization, muscle-memory,

balance, target selection, and tactical owtools you can use in

actual confrontations. Each move in the drill is a response to some

aspect of a real ght. As a drill it is performed in a specic ordernot because a real ght would follow this sequence, but simply for

conditioning and patterning purposes. Practicing the CQF helps

prepare you to respond to an ambush or the rapidly changing

elements of a ght as effectively as possible.
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.movhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBlauerCQF.mov

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Robert Smith, M.D.

Human Weapon System(Video Article)

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.mov

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.wmv

Online Video ArticleVideo Article (14:53)

Robert Smith is an M.D. and the medical director of Direct Action

Medical Network, a group of physicians providing medical trainingand support to organizations that work in high-risk, remote,

and/or austere areas. In this video, he talks about the tactical and

safety benets that people working in such environments can

gain from understanding the body as a human weapon system.

There are signicant advantages of training the whole human

body in ways that engage natural abilities and hard-wired instincts,

and these techniques are underutilized in most kinds of combat

training. Thinking of the body as a human weapon system is about

integrating medical and physiological knowledge into combative

wisdom. Its about having faith in our physiology.

In any combat system, your equipment has to be properly tuned

and in this case, the equipment is the body. Tuning it means being

prepared to utilize it optimallybeing trained and conditioned to

handle the unexpected, physically and mentally. You have to train

the way youre going to ght: with intensity, and in accordance

with the bodys natural functions of perception, reaction, and

response. The relevance to martial arts, self-defense, and athletics

is obvious.
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.movhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalDocSmithSep07.mov

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Mike Burgener, with Tony Budding

Over the past twelve months, weve described a complete set

of progressions and skill transfer exercises for teaching and

developing the snatch and clean and jerk. They can be used in

order to learn the movements, or they can be used at any pointin an athletes progress to rene a skill or strengthen a weakness.

In this and the following months, well talk about specic issues

lifters often face and how to use and combine some of the moves

weve discussed to help resolve those issues.

This month, we describe a sequence that helps address one of

the most vexing issues for many athletes: strength and stability in

the receiving position of the full snatch (i.e., squat snatch). Most

athletesand CrossFitters especiallyhave greater trouble with

receiving the barbell in the bottom of the overhead squat than they

do with generating the necessary momentum and elevation on the

barbell to get it up overhead. In other words, most CrossFitters

miss max effort snatches not because the bar didnt get high

enough, but because they didnt get under the bar successfully.

The following series of movements is extremely effective for

developing the strength, stability, speed, and condence to snatch

heavy weights.

The sequence is muscle snatch + overhead squat + snatch

balance + Sots press. All these movements have been described

in detail in previous articles. The muscle snatch is an upper-body

strengthening exercise that trains the athlete both to keep the

barbell close to the body and to move aggressively under the bar

and engage the upper body to speed the descent. The overhead

squat is a full-body strengthening exercise with an emphasis onmidline stability, and it trains the drive up out of the hole to

complete the lift. The snatch balance develops speed and stability

in the receiving position. And the Sots press is an upper-body

strengthening and exibility exercise that develops stability and

comfort in the bottom position.

This sequence can be done as a warm-up with a dowel or PVC

pipe. Weight should be added gradually. The most basic version

of the sequence is to do one rep of each of the four exercises (as

shown in the videos). After warming up, start with a weight at

which you can comfortably do three sequences of one rep each.

So, one sequence is:

1. Muscle snatch, 1 rep

2. Overhead squat, 1 rep

3. Snatch balance, 1 rep

4. Sots press, 1 rep

Repeat that sequence three times to make up once set. Repeat the

entire set for three to ve more sets, resting between sets. Add

a little weight at each set and reduce the number of sequences

within each set if necessary. This sequence can be done at the

beginning of a training session as an extended warm-up, or at the

end as skill development.

Assistance Sequence for the Snatch

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.mov

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.wmv

Online VideoAssistance Sequence - 45 lbs
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.movhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg45lbsSep07.mov

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...continued

Assistance Sequence for the Snatch

You can customize the rep scheme within each sequence to focus

on particular weaknesses. If the athlete is plenty strong but is slow

and/or shaky in the third pull, you can bump up the reps of the

snatch balance to three to ve. If the athlete has exibility issuesor is weak or unstable in the bottom position, increasing the repson the Sots press will demand improvement (again, starting with

light weights). If the athlete is quick but lacks overall strength,

the reps of the overhead squat can be boosted. The sequence

can also be done without the Sots press if the athletes bottom

position is stronger than his pulls (though this is rarely the case for

CrossFitters, and it shouldnt be skipped just because you dont

like it).

For example, there was a 77-kg-class male lifter at Mikes

Gym recently who power snatches 90 kg but can only snatch

95. Why? Bottom weakness. No stability. And no strength in the

top position. His pull was awesome , but he just did not knowhow to push up on the bar. So he did a muscle snatch + overhead

squat + Sots press sequence, with a good 70 kg. By the time he

left, he had snatched a new PR of 100. For him, it was all about

learning how to how to push up on the bar.

In contrast, lets take a look at a lifter like my daughter Sage. She

can muscle snatch OKnot great, but OK. But she can snatch

balance 80 kg! (As a teenage female 63-kg lifter, no less!) Its not

her overhead strength thats her limitation; its her pull and her

turnover at the top. For her I prescribe a sequence of muscle

snatch + overhead squat + snatch balance. She doesnt need to do

Sots presses as much. I want her to put that energy into improving

her pulling strength. Use the exercises you can to improve theweaknesses you see.

Mike Burgener is the owner of Mikes Gym (a

CrossFit affiliate and USAW Regional Training Center),

is a USAW Senior International Coach, former junior

World team (1996-2004) and senior World team(2005) coach, and strength and conditioning coach at

Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista, Calif.

Tony Budding is the Media Guy for CrossFit,

Inc., and a trainer atCrossFit Santa Cruz.

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.mov

http://media.crosst.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.wmv

Online VideoAssistance Sequence - 115 lbs
http://www.mikesgym.org/http://www.mikesgym.org/http://www.crossfitsantacruz.com/http://www.crossfitsantacruz.com/http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.movhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.wmvhttp://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_JournalBurg115lbsSep07.movhttp://www.crossfitsantacruz.com/http://www.crossfitsantacruz.com/http://www.mikesgym.org/http://www.mikesgym.org/

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Becca Borawski

A ghter out of Dan Hendersons Team Quest camp, Rameau

Thierry Sokoudjou was the undoubted underdog going into his

February 2007 Pride ght against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, little

brother of the famed heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Sokoudjou was unknown to most of the MMA world and had a2-1 record in small shows. Not only did Sokoudjou surprise fans

and critics everywhere by knocking Nogueira out, but he repeated

the same feat two months later against the powerful Brazilian

ghter, Ricardo Arona, cementing his place in the limelight of the

MMA world.

Despite his two stunning knockout wins, Sokoudjous background

is in judo. Originally from Cameroon, Sokoudjou moved to the

United States in 2001 at the age of seventeen, and proceeded to

win the open-weight division of the US Open Judo Championships

that same year. When visa problems prevented Sokoudjou from

returning to Cameroon to compete in the 2004 Olympic Trials for

his country, he instead chose to pursue mixed martial arts.

For this months article, we go back to Sokoudjous roots as he

shows us an inside trip takedown, demonstrated on his training

partner, Xande Ribeiro. In the photos, Sokoudjou is the one in

blue, with the longer hair.

This particular takedown is a move Sokoudjou executes when his

opponent winds up pushed against the fence (or ropes). In this

scenario, Sokoudjou and Xande are locked together with their

upper bodies, in the over under position. Sokoudjous left arm

is over Xandes right, pinning it down, and his right arm is goingunderneath Xandes left armpit. His hands join behind Xande

back in a tight grip. Sokoudjous head is tight against Xandes right

shoulder.

If Sokoudjou pulls on Xandes body, Xande will resist by leaning

back against the fence and lowering his base. By base, we are

referring to a ghters center of bodyweight and in essence, hisbalance. It is evident in the rst photo that Xande has pushed

his butt back and down against the wall to counter Sokoudjous

attempts to move him (photo 1).

In this scenario, Sokoudjou chooses to keep his opponent against

the fence and go for an inside trip. First Sokoudjou is going to

take his right leg and hook it inside Xandes left (photo 2). As he

does this, he will turn his body and hips out the opposite direction

This extends his reach with his right leg and also gives him a wider

angle to turn back in towards Xande.

Sokoudjous Inside Trip

1 2

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...continued

Sokoudjous Inside Trip

After he has hooked Xandes foot, Sokoudjou begins to turn back

to the right. His body turns in a circular movement, his foot pulling

Xandes leg away from the wall (cage), and his upper body pulling

Xandes shoulders off the cage. Sokoudjou is pulling with his right

foot against Xandes leg and pushing with his upper body against

Xandes right shoulder (photo 3 & 4).

Once Sokoudjou successfully turns Xande away from the wall,

Xande can no longer retain his balance because his weight ispushed back, but his feet are no longer underneath him and he

does not have the cage as support (photo 5). Xande will fall to the

ground and Sokoudjou will land in the dominant top position.

Against someone like Xande, who is an accomplished jiu-jitsu

practitioner, this could be a dangerous position to be in. Sokoudjou

has already taken precautions, however, and has his left knee up

against Xandes inner right thigh, to prevent Xande from locking

him in his guard. From here, Sokoudjou can begin executing his

own ground and pound or submission strategy (photo 6 & 7).

While Sokoudjou is best known for his upset knockout victories

over Nogueira and Arona, he is in fact a well-rounded ghter with

world-class grappling skills and high-level competition experience

Sokoudjou is no longer ghting for the defunct Pride Fighting

Championships organization and has been entertaining offers

from a few different organizations in the United States.

In the meantime, to see Sokoudjou in MMA action, watch his Pride fights:

Pride 34 Sokoudjou vs. Ricardo Arona

Pride 33 Sokoudjou vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

To see Sokoudjous judo, check out this match between him and Karo

Parisyan:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ze0a027K38s

Becca Borawski, CSCS, teaches and trains at Petranek Fitness/CrossFit Los Angeles in Santa Monica. She

has a masters degree in film from the University of Southern California and a background in martial arts

training. She has blended these skills to produce DVDs and build websites for professional fighters. She

currently trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Rey Diogo, a Carlson Gracie afliate.

3 4 5

6

7
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ze0a027K38shttp://www.petranekfitness.com/http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ze0a027K38shttp://www.petranekfitness.com/http://www.petranekfitness.com/http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ze0a027K38s

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Tyler Hass

In my last article (issue 58), I discussed the ring row. It is an

excellent horizontal pulling exercise and great for correcting

muscle imbalances common in a lot of lifters. This month, I have

some fun variations on the ring row for you. They incorporate

variations on the basic movement pattern, and some also require

more stabilization across the body and rotational strength.

Ring Row Variations

Reverse row

This variation on the row targets an unusual

movement pattern. In this variation, you will start

in the usual position at an angle under the rings,

with your arms fully extended, your heels on the

ground, and your body held in a tight plank. Row

the rings back behind your head with your palms

facing your head. The movement pattern is similar

to throwing a ball backwards.

Extended reverse rowThe extended reverse row is similar to the regular

reverse row, except you perform it with your

arms kept straight throughout the movement. It

is a good assistance exercise for learning how to

swing on rings. It also taxes the posterior chain

from top to bottom and can help to improve

overhead stability in overhead squats. Most

people are by far the weakest pressing backwards

in the overhead position.

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...continued

Ring Row Variations

Chainsaw row

This variation of the row involves holding a single

ring vertically, with your hands side by side on

the ring, palms facing one another, also called a

mixed grip. In this variation, you will bend yourarms to pull your chest up toward the ring and

then rotate one shoulder up to the top of the

ring, pulling your torso around and rotating your

hand above the ring.

This is a pretty challenging exercise, so feel free to

elevate the ring and perform it at a more upright

body angle. These can provide some challenge

even when youre nearly in a standing position.

The cool thing about this exercise is that you

get to train rotational strength in a functional

manner.

One-arm ring row

The one-arm ring row doesnt require much

explanation since its essentially the same as

regular ring row, performed with just one arm.

However, the one-arm version does have a

greater range of motion. Your body does not

have to be parallel to the ground at all times. In

fact, letting your non-working shoulder drop a bit

at the start and rise above the ring at the nish

makes additional demands on both the working

shoulder and, especially, all the torso stabilizers.

Tyler Hass is the founder of ringtraining.com and the designer and producer of Elite Rings. His company is

dedicated to spreading gymnastics into the broader tness world. He can be reached at [email protected].
http://www.ringtraining.com/http://www.ringtraining.com/http://www.ringtraining.com/

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0

Mark Rippetoe

Its been a hard year here at Wichita Falls Athletic Club. Weve

lost a couple of very worthwhile folks since last summer, and

another good friend of mine died recently. Cardell was 45 when

he was diagnosed with an ascending aortic aneurism that possiblyinvolved the aortic valve. He was prepared for a complicated,

dangerous operation, but sepsis developed almost immediately

after the surgery, and he died as a result of complications from

the infection. The reason I mention this rather unhappy personal

item is that it took him three and a half weeks to die. Thats a long

time in the ICU, and he lasted that long because he was very, very

strong. Cardell completely ruptured his patellar tendon at work

a couple of years ago, a devastating injury that could easily have

left him crippled for life. But he was strong, and ve months after

the surgery he squatted 315 pounds for 5 reps to our standards

here at the gym (i.e., with full range). Strong people are harder to

kill than weak people, and more useful in general. While were on

the subject, our condolences go to the family and friends of JesseMarunde, who will be missed as well.

Strength is the ability to produce force, and it is possibly the most

important component in athletics. It is dependent on muscle mass,

on the nerves that make the muscles re, and on the will that res

the nerves. Power depends on it, as does balance, coordination,

speed, quickness, and endurance. Athletes will risk censure

and suspension to get it; there are no steroids for improving

technique. And once they have it, they are much harder to beat:

all other things being equal, the stronger athlete will always win.

Technical ability is the capacity to execute a movement efciently

completing the movement while using the least possible energy. Itis the ability to adhere very closely to an efcient motor pathwayin a consistent manner. As such, it can also be dened as the

ability to demonstrate the strength available to complete a given

athletic task, since in its absence even great strength cannot be

displayed in that movement. In this sense, strength is dependent

on technical ability, even though strength is the quantity we most

often seek to measure: the shot is thrown fordistance, the bar is

liftedfor the most weight, the ball is hitover the fence, the lineman

tackles the fullback hard enough to stop him. These are more

obvious examples of strength display, but all sports worthy of the

name depend on force production within the context of correct

technical execution.

Yet there are a number of competitive sports with athletes and

coaches who think strength is not a terribly critical component of

performance. Sports like swimming, fencing, cycling, soccer, cricket,

tennis, boxing, and hockey pay lip service at some minimal level

to strength training, but it is not a major part of most athletes

preparation for competition in those sports, and barbells are not

a signicant component of what little strength work there is. Even

rugby, with its reputation as a big mans sport, has no organized

school of thought on how to incorporate strength training. There

will be isolated examples of individual athletes who utilize strengt

training to a greater extent than their peers, of course, and thes

people will usually be dominant in their sportin part becaus

of the training, and in part because of the motivation level of aathlete who actively seeks to prepare for excellence outside th

normal realm of training and outside the actual eld of play.

The amazing thing is that the sport of weightlifting is one of thes

There is a school of thoughtin the United States especiallythat holds that training for correct technique in the snatch and th

clean and jerk is more important than training for strength. Now

that Ive brought it up, the guilty will deny it. But I know wh

is being done to train our countrys weightlifters at the highes

levelslots of us knowand its not what you would call strengt

training. Athletes who go for extended periods of time withou

being asked to do a PR back squat or press, or any kind of heav

deadlift at all, are not being trained for strength in the usual sens

of the term. And if you are one of those folks who are prone t

dismiss anyone not directly involved with the National Program a

not entitled to an opinion, you might as well stop right here. M

opinion can be evaluated independently of my credentials, and

you are capable of doing that, you have my permission to continureading.

The case against a major role for strength training in technique

dependent sports is not always stated this way exactly. It may b

claimed that time spent getting strong could be more productive

spent improving technique; I think this is true only for athlete

with bad technique. It also depends on the nature of the sport, a

well see later. Or it may be claimed that technique contribute

more to performance than strength, which might be true for go

and a few other games and activities but is not true for athletic

A golf clubs business end is not very heavy, and the accuracy wit

which it is directed is much more critical than the small amounof force necessary to accelerate it around the body during th

swing. (As an aside, Gary Player just announced that At Lea

One Pro Golfer That He Knows Of has taken steroids, and tha

random drug testing must begin immediately in the PGA to stav

off the decay that now haunts Major League Baseball. This render

me astonished, puzzled, and amused. A large number of PG

professionals who win lots of money are fat chain-smokers. Ther

is even a local golfer here in Wichita Falls who shoots in the 70

and will damn sure take your money, despite the fact that he is 72

smokes, drinks more than I do, and has a prosthetic leg. What

Strong Enough?

If your weightlifting team is good enough that you

dont have to worry about making them stronger,

thats wonderful, but if it isnt, youd better do

something about it.

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...continued

Strong Enough?

the hell are these other guys wasting money on

steroids for? I suspect that it has nothing to do

with the actual game of golf.)

The case for strength training is a simple one. Both

strength and technical ability are developablequantities that respond to a correctly designed

program to make them improve. We refer to

strength work as training and technique work

as practice. Both produce improvement in

roughly the same way: easy at rst, harder as

you get better, and after youre really good,

more improvement becomes more and more

difcultthen nally impossibleto obtain. It

is said to approach a limit, a point past which

further improvement cannot occur. This concept

as it applies to strength is illustrated in Figure

1. A limit is the result of the fact that nothing

can continue to improve innitely or indenitely.Thats why new world records are not set daily

in every sport. As a broad, probably overly-

general rule, order in all systems increases only

with the addition of energy, or work; entropy

is the tendency of all systems toward disorder

without the addition of work to combat all this

heinous disorder, an observation derived from

the second law of thermodynamics. To put it

in another probably overly generalized way,

there reaches a point at which the addition of

an innite amount of energy to a system resultsin an innitely small increase in order. Order

is what we mean when we say improvement.

And that, my friends, is just how the Universe

operates.

The graphic representation of the approach to a limit is described

as an asymptote, a term from mathematics that describes the

shape of the possible improvement curve as it approaches its limit.

The limit of the ability to improve strength is ultimately controlled

by an individuals genetics, as has been widely recognized. The

closeness to which that limit is approached is determined by the

ability to train in the most productive possible way, itself limited

by time, resources, and motivation. Technical ability is limited

as well, by the capacity to express mechanical efciency. Thisability is also controlled by the genetics governing neuromuscular

efciency, intelligence, sensory acuity, balance, and coordination;

the closeness to which this limit is approached is a function of

practice its quality and quantity. In reality, these asymptotic

curves get pretty wavy as they approach their limits, the result of

injuries, forced layoffs, lapses in motivation, and all the other things

that interrupt progress and keep the names of most great natural

athletes from becoming household words. But if you pull back far

enough to see the bigger picture, the curve approaches the limit

smoothly, and then falls away as the career winds down.

All this should be fairly obvious, so the real question is this: What

is the relationship between strength and its ability to be expressed

through correct technique? Strength and technical ability are

interdependent quantities. One does not exist without the othe

being present at some level. But it has been my experience as a

coach that technique develops much faster than strength. Within

six months of learning the snatch, any novice who has the potentia

to be a competitive weightlifter can do an essentially perfect

snatch with, say, 30 kg, and two years later that same lifter will be

snatching 100 kg with just about the same technique. The quantity

that has continued to improve is strength, not technical ability. Anargument can be made that technical ability must keep pace with

strength, but technical ability on the snatch must remain at a leve

that allows the snatch to actually be performed, or youre not

snatching, youre dropping the bar from overhead with a wide grip

As you improve your snatch (i.e., move greater weight), you are

getting stronger with the same technical ability, so which quantity

is actually improving? Both maybe, but strength certainly. In fact

the improvement in a weightlifters snatch over a career looks

quite similar to that of a powerlifters squat, bench, or deadlift

movements that require only a small percentage of the technica

skill required to perform a snatch.

The generalized relationship between performance improvement and training complexity rela-tive to time. Note that the rate of adaptation to training slows over a training career.

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Strong Enough?

A common argument is that some lifters are able to convert a

very high percentage of their strength into the technical execution

of the snatch and the clean and jerk, and that since this is the case,

strength per se is not the limiting quantity. It seems to me that

since strength and technical ability are interdependent quantities,

there is a ratio between any individuals ability to produce acorrect technical effort and a given level of strength. There

are exceptionally efcient lifters, like Yuri Zakharevich, Anatoli

Pisarenko, and Jeff Michaels, who can do a clean and jerk with

a weight that is just short of their best front squat. The reason

we remember who they are is because they are the exceptions.

Most lifters need a margin of strength over and above their

ability to execute technically so that the minute imperfections

that are always present in even a nearly perfect snatch do not

signicantly affect the lifters ability to nish the lift. No snatch is

100% mechanically perfect, and if sufcient strength is available it

is possible to save what would otherwise be a miss by wrestling

it back or forward or up as needed; in this way, enough strength

makes perfect technique slightly less critical.

But these exceptional lifters still demonstrate the phenomenon of

the ratio between a lifters strength and his ability to demonstrate

that strength in a technically demanding movement. This ratio may

even change over time, as the athlete ages; a close ratio may be a

feature of younger lifters more commonly, and most of the ones

I know of in this situation are in fact young. It also varies with

the conditions under which each type of max effortsquatting

strength and snatch techniqueis measured. If, for reasons of

training schedule, strength is at peak and technical practice is not,

the ratio will be different than it would be the week before a

meet. But some lifters will always be more efcient than others,

and that is a perfectly reasonable thing to expect. And since this

ratio exists, the more easily improved quantity in the equation

will drive up the value of the sum if it is increased. Those lifters

who are able to clean a very high percentage of their deadlift

are either very technically efcient, or not very strong, depending

on your prejudice. Most lifters clean a lowerrather than

higherpercentage of their deadlift, but either way, the ratio

between strength and technical ability for an individual lifter is

an identiable quantity. And if the strength variable is increased

and technical ability stays the same, the ability to display strength

through technical ability increases. Do the math.

My point here is that after a certain level of technical improvement,which occurs relatively early in a lifters training, the quantity that

will always remain the most improvable is strength. This is because

technical ability is primarily a neurological and neuromuscular

phenomenon. It is developed through basic instruction, repetition,

correction, mental modeling and imaging, more repetition and

correction, and then a diminishing amount of correction as the

movement gets embedded and the feel for correct performance

becomes developed. This process, for a person actually capable

of learning the movement (unfortunately, there do exist motor

morons) takes a few weeks to a few months. The development of

strength, on the other hand, takes years. The processes involved

in building strength involve muscle, bone, connective tissue, and

endocrine systems as well as the neuromuscular system, and

the remodeling of these tissues takes time. Strength acquisition

requires a much more profound change in physiology than that

which accompanies the learning of a movement pattern, and the

processes that bring about this change do their work over months

and years, not just weeks.

And if technique has been worried about at the expense of strength

as it very well might have been for many American weightlifters

the potential for improvement in overall performance lies in

strength improvement. Shane Hamman told me recently that he

was quite sure that the lifters he had competed against at the

international level were much stronger than he was. He cited

the example of Hossein Reza Zadeh, the Iranian superheavyweight

whom he saw do a 230-kg (506-pound) power clean at the 2004

Olympics without bending his knees at the catch. Shane said

he never saw him squat anything much heavier than 280 kg (616

pounds) for a triple in the warm-up room, but a guy who is about

to compete in the Olympics might not be inclined to do a PR backsquat in the warm-up room at the meet just to show everybody

The 230 power clean was all Shane needed to see. He had the

same impression of the other lifters in the A session, where the

lifters expected to place high in the meet are grouped. Shanes

opinion about strength is not to be ignored: he has squatted over

1000 pounds in suit and wraps, and I personally witnessed him

squat 804 in a pair of lifting shoes, shorts, and a t-shirtno belt

or knee wrapsand handle the weight explosively, immediately

followed by ve standing back ips.

I know athletes who have been at the Olympic Training Center in

the weightlifting program for various periods of time and never

been asked for a PR back squat, front squat, or, god forbid, a

deadlift the entire time they were there. This is a common feature

of weightlifting training in this country, where the only lifts that are

emphasized or coached for technique are the snatch and the cleanand jerk. Some weightlifting coaches may tell you that they train

the squat hard, but this critical exercise is approached with the

Just put the bar on your back and squat it coaching method, the

same one that has worked so brilliantly for high school footbal

players for decadesand to similar effect. It is as if they think

that coaching the squat, the press, and the deadlift for technica

correctness and efciency is beneath their dignity, that technique

is only important in the snatch and the clean and jerk. Some

of their lifters even have perfect form on the two lifts, in the B

session. The critical thing is that quite often the A-session lifters

have less than perfect snatch and C&J form, but are strong enough

that they can get away with it.

After a certain level of technical improvement,which occurs relatively early in a lifters training,

the quantity that will always remain the most

improvable is strength.

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Strong Enough?

The lifters who regularly stomp us to death at the World

Championships are probably not coached for strength either.

Their programs have the luxury of high enough participation and

a large enough pool of very strong lifters to choose from that

strength coaching need not be a primary concern. China has

1.3 million registered liftersthey can nd eight men and sevenwomen strong enough to beat us without a lot of trouble. But not

devoting a bunch of time to making their national team stronger

doesnt mean that strength is not important to them. If youre

on their team, you are by denition very damn strong. And if you

cant stay strongor, more likely, aliveon their program, they

can nd someone else who can. Big, efcient programs like those

run by most European, Asian, and some African countries advance

enough athletes to the higher levels that the national team has

plenty of strength talent to choose from, and the program itself

does not have to focus on strength. It is just like the NFL, and for

exactly the same reasona huge talent pool and lots of feeder

programs. USA Weightlifting, with its 3,000 members, is not. My

point is that if your weightlifting team is good enough that youdont have to worry about making them stronger, thats wonderful,

but if it isnt, youd better do something about it. We dont seem

to be.

And again, if strength is not important, why do we worry about

steroids? An entire enforcement bureaucracyUSADA/WADA

now exists because of athletes persistent use of drugs that are

primarily taken to make them stronger, by whatever mechanism.

Steroids do not make your technique better; they just make

you able to handle heavier weights with your same technique.

Bodybuilders dont use them to make their Double Biceps pose

more uid and precise. Cyclists dont use them to make their

pedal stroke more efcient. Professional wrestlers dont take

them to improve their Sleeper Hold. Baseball players already

know how to hit the ball; steroids just help them hit it farther, not

more precisely. Whatever the reason for taking themimproved

recovery, neuromuscular efciency, weight gain and leverage

improvement, tightness, aggression, and so onthey work

because, ultimately, they make you stronger. And, clearly, stronger

is important enough to these athletes to risk a career for.

Athletes and coaches in other sports share this misunderstanding.

Judo is a martial art with strength and technique components

that are not quite analogous to Olympic weightlifting. It takes

to longer to gain technical prociency in any martial art becauseof the much more extensive catalog of movements involved and

the complex nature of their application. A weightlifting meet

always involves three snatch attempts followed by three clean

and jerk attempts; a judo match consists of the extemporaneous

application of the appropriate number of many thousands of

technique permutations, depending on conditions that change

constantly over the length of the point. Technical ability in judo is

arguably much more important and much harder to develop than

it is in weightlifting.

Yet great strength trumps technical ability in judo, provided that the

players are of similar bodyweight. The sport places a high premium

on the use of leverage to overcome an opponents strength, but a

some point strength cannot be overcome by anyone save the mos

highly skilled player. Great strength allows imperfect technique to

be forgiven. My friend Gant Grimes, an experienced and capable

judoka, was once destroyed by an opponent named Brad Sanchez

a guy who had beaten a national champion despite having trainedfor only a few months. Sanchez was a 500-pound bencher, strong

everywhere else too, and his strength rendered an opponents

superior technical ability irrelevant. Gant was chokeslammed by

this guy, and he says there was literally nothinghe could do about

it. [See Strength on the Mat, below.]

Here is where the difference in the technical-ability learning

curves for the two sports is critical; most weightlifters are

experts at technique in a year, maybe two, whereas in a sport

like judo, important improvements in technical ability can continue

for decades. Depending on how much mat time you have

accumulatedand how many months or years it takes to do so

it might behoove a judo player to spend at least a decent amountof time under the bar. And despite this fact, the vast majority o

judo coaches resist the idea of adding barbell strength training to

preparation for the sport.

As with most sports coaches who lack specic training or

experience with barbells, their reluctance is understandable, the

result of a perfectly reasonable desire to avoid coaching things

they dont know about. Now, this has never stopped a high schoo

football coach from telling his athletes to look up at the ceiling when

they do their half-squats, but it is conceivable that a conscientious

sensei who has never lifted weights might be reluctant to put a

bar and plates in the dojo. What would not be understandable is

that same sensei advising against learning barbells and spending 45

minutes twice a week doing them.

It is also understandable that endurance sports coaches might

not have an appreciation of the contribution that strength training

can make to training for long-slow-distance sports. The easiest

way to understand how this works is to look at the example

of cycling, where each pedal stroke represents the use of a

percentage of absolute strength. If your absolute strength

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